GOTHENBURG LICENSING SYSTEM.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIII, Issue 12580, 29 September 1908, Page 4

GOTHENBURG LICENSING SYSTEM.

The managing director of one of the greatest Swedish ironworks, Mr A. Sjorgren, who is making a round the world \ tour for the benefit of his health as well as business purposes, is at present in Auckland, and gave some interesting particulars to a Star reporter concerning the Gothenburg licensing system. Mr Sjorgren said that it had decreased the amount of drunkenness in Sweden to a very great extent. The system applied to spirits only, and gave the municipality a monopoly in the sale, or a number of persons might combine for the purpose of retailing spirits. The important feature, however, was the fact that such vendors were not permitted to retain more than 6 per cent, of the profits, the balance going to the municipality. In thia way there was no incentive for people to push the sale to an excessive degree. All the houses, +00, are well conducted, and are bound to supi.ply food to all-comers. Beer-drinking in. Sweden has increased of late years, though the people 'do not consume the quantities of this beverage that is common amongst the Germans and English. The consumption of spirits, however, has decreased, and according to Mr Sjorgren the amount of drunkenness among the workmen was very small, and within his own experience as an employer of labour, he had observed a very great improvement in the average , sobriety of the industrial classes. Prohibition, he continued, did not obtain in Sweden, except as regards the sale of beer, and that was only in vogue in certain country districts, and not in the cities. During the time that Mr Sjorgren lived in America, he had heard many people describe prohibition as a "humbug," for if anyone wanted drink it was there for them. "On Sunday afternoon in one town in Massachusetts where the sale of liquor was prohibited on that day," he said, "he had seen many people drinking in a large building to which they were admitted for the purpose of witnessing questionable variety performances. Beer and spirits were freely on sale, and the police took no action whatever. I am not a believer in prohibition," he concluded.